Division III boys: Central's defense keys victory

Sunday

Cleveland Central Catholic shuts out Tinora in the first quarter en route to title.

A lot of teams scrimmage for two hours and call it a practice. Not Cleveland Central Catholic.

Chall Montgomery had 16 points for the Ironmen, who shut out Defiance Tinora in the first quarter and limited the Rams to 27-percent shooting in winning 45-38 Saturday to capture the Division III state championship.

“It’s always defense,” Montgomery said. “That’s what we work on in practice.”

The Ironmen (24-3), ranked ninth in the final regular-season Associated Press poll, put up a wall that Tinora seemed unable to penetrate. It was the lowest-scoring title game ever in the division.

“Give them credit,” said Tinora coach Rob Mahnke. “Some of it was we were a little nerved up and it took us a while to settle down.”

Derrick Bufford and Brandon Campbell each added 10 points for the Ironmen, who won the school’s first title in its second trip to the state tournament.

Gregg Gerken had 17 points for Tinora, which missed all nine shots from the field and had six turnovers in the first quarter while falling behind 11-0. The Rams came back to take the lead in the second quarter, but couldn’t keep up offensively.

No team had gone scoreless in a quarter in a state championship game since Lancaster St. Mary’s was shut out in the fourth quarter of the 1931 Class B final.

“I don’t think you can play any worse than we did in the first quarter,” Mahnke said.

Tinora’s output at Saturday’s game at Value City Arena was also the fewest points by a winning team since the sponsoring association went to four divisions in 1988. The previous low was Campbell Memorial in a 47-39 win over Belpre in the 1993 title game — also the previous lowest-scoring title game in Division III.

A lot of the reason for Tinora’s troubles scoring stemmed from CCC’s defense. The Ironmen allowed an opponent to score as many as 60 points only once all season.

“Our quickness and a few of our blocks really made them adjust,” Ironmen coach Kevin Noch said. “It was obvious. They didn’t shoot the ball with a lot of confidence. Our pressure was excellent.”

Tinora’s starters were a combined 4-for-26 from the field (15 percent).

Neither team was able to get much going offensively. While the Rams hit just 14-of-52 shots (26.9 percent) from the field, including 3-of-22 3-pointers (14 percent), the Ironmen shot just 43 percent (18-of-42) despite hitting several breakaway layups. They also made just 2-of-8 3-pointers.

With CCC holding a 25-23 lead late in the third quarter, Montgomery scored on a layup and, after a Tinora miss, Bufford hit a bucket inside off an assist from 6-foot-8 sophomore Anton Grady. The Rams then turned it over, with Campbell hitting two foul shots for a 31-23 lead.

The Ironmen maintained the lead until sprinting away in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve had close games all year,” Grady said. “We know how to get it done down the stretch.”

Ahead 33-28, they ran off the next seven points. First, Montgomery hit a 3 from the left corner, then Campbell made a layup in transition and Grady had an inside bucket off an assist from Campbell to make it 40-28.

The Rams bounced back to cut the lead to 43-38 on Gerken’s follow with 49 seconds left.

But then Campbell hit a foul shot and Montgomery later followed a Grady miss to close the scoring.

“It’s always been a goal to hang a banner in Central Catholic,” Noch said. “We didn’t get the (North Coast League) this year, but we got the bigger one.”

The first half could not have been much more hot-and-cold.

Tinora was shut out in the first quarter, then came back with a 13-1 run to take the lead before falling behind 17-14 at the half.

Central Catholic could have really taken advantage to pull away, but instead had difficulty handling the ball against Tinora’s pressure. In the second quarter, the Ironmen hit just 2-of-8 shots from the field and committed four turnovers.

Surprisingly, seven teams had failed to score in a quarter in a state championship game, although all occurred between 1923 and 1931.

Tinora was going for its first state championship in any sport in its first appearance at the state tournament. The Rams came in allowing just 38.4 points a game and held Dayton Christian, which was scoring 60 points a game, to just 38 in a state semifinal victory.

CCC holds 5 a.m. practices. Nobody was complaining on Saturday.

“I’ll practice everyday at 5 in the morning for this,” Campbell said.

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